


Christmas is for Family

by Chocolatequeen



Series: The Doctor's Wife [4]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Tree, Established Relationship, F/M, Family, Married Couple, Telepathic Bond, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:47:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27900247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chocolatequeen/pseuds/Chocolatequeen
Summary: Two months after Doomsday, the Doctor is still trying to find a way for Rose to talk to Jackie. Rose uses Christmas to remind him that he is all the family she needs. Set in The Doctor's Wife, sequel to A Timely Rescue. Post Doomsday fixit.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: The Doctor's Wife [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/410959
Comments: 16
Kudos: 124
Collections: 31 Days of Ficmas 2020





	Christmas is for Family

The Doctor held his breath as he waited for the TARDIS to bring back the new results. He’d been trying to find some way for Rose to see Jackie again, and so far none of his plans had worked.

_Come on, come on,_ he pleaded with the universe. _I know you like to screw me over, but this is for Rose._

The ship beeped, and he pulled the monitor around. Negative. Not a gap, not a single crack…

The Doctor growled and slammed his hands down on the console. “Just for once, just this once I would like the universe to listen to me.”

He took a deep breath, trying to bring his frustration under control before Rose noticed and asked him about it. He rocked back on his heels and rubbed his hands over his face. He loved that Rose was still here, with him, but he hated that she’d had to choose between him and her mother.

His internal time sense suddenly buzzed, and he realised it had been five hours since he’d seen his wife. She’d left him alone to tinker after breakfast, claiming she had her own project she was working on. The last the Doctor had seen, she was walking towards the storage cupboard that held everything they’d taken from the flat.

The Doctor clicked the monitor off and headed down the corridor. Halfway to the room, he realised Rose wasn’t there anymore. He turned down a corridor, following the gentle tug of their bond.

As he approached the library, he heard music floating out into the corridor. He paused and tilted his head, and raised an eyebrow when he realised it was Christmas music.

“Is it Christmas?” he murmured.

_No days or months in the TARDIS,_ his past self reminded him, the Northern accent strong. _If Rose wants it to be Christmas, it can be Christmas._

Well, he wasn’t going to argue with himself on that. If Rose wanted to celebrate Christmas, he would make it happen.

He pushed open the door and smiled when he saw Rose. She’d put on a bright pink Santa hat and was dancing around the tree, an ornament in hand. The multicoloured fairy lights twinkled merrily, and with a fire going in the fireplace, it was almost exactly like a picture from a Christmas card.

“Can I help?” he asked as he stepped into the room.

Rose smiled at him over her shoulder. “Here you are, showing up when the hard part is already done,” she teased.

The Doctor held up his hands. “I can claim innocence this time. I just came to a stopping point in my project.”

She raised an eyebrow, and he had a feeling she knew what his project was. After a moment of silent conversation, she sighed and forced a smile to her lips. “Well, come on then,” she said. “The ornaments are over there.”

The Doctor spotted the box on the couch and immediately recognised it. _This must be what she was getting from the storage room._

He picked up a stuffed snowman ornament that was missing the carrot nose and a few of the buttons down the front. “This snowman looks like he’s seen things.”

She giggled when she saw it. “My nan gave that to us when I was five,” she told him. “Only she brought her dog with her that year, and he grabbed Mr. Snowman off the tree and ran with it. He was a little worse for the wear when we got him back.”

The Doctor laughed. “Where should we put him?”

Rose pointed to a lower branch. “Tuck him back in there.”

The Doctor put the ornament where he was directed. He could hear Rose rifling through the box behind him, and he waited until she’d returned to back away from the tree.

“That’s a very pretty… star?” he said, staring at the misshapen hand made ornament.

“Mrs. Renfro from down the hall made these one year and gave them to everyone.” Rose smiled, bittersweet. “She gave everyone an ornament every year—hung them on all of our doors on December 6.”

The Doctor tilted his head. That kind of community was so human, and so very foreign to him.

“What are you thinking?” Rose asked.

“I’m trying to imagine Time Lords ever doing something so… homey,” he said.

Rose raised an eyebrow. “I can’t picture it, not from what you’ve told me.”

He shook his head. “For a telepathic race, we really weren’t very community oriented.” He smiled. “It’s one of the things I love the most about humans.”

He reached into the box for another ornament. “Tell me the story of this one,” he requested, holding up a delicate spun glass ornament.

Rose smiled and took it from him, touching it lightly so it would spin. The glass caught the light as it spun, sending rainbows all around the room.

“Mum got this for me at Harrod’s when I was ten,” she said. “I saw it in the window and couldn’t stop talking about it. She took extra clients for a week so she could surprise me with it.”

The Doctor didn’t know quite what to say to that. He couldn’t really say it sounded like something Jackie would do, because it didn’t. But he didn’t want to force Rose to divulge more stories about her mother than she wanted to, especially not now when she’d just lost her.

They worked quietly for a while after that, hanging ornaments until the tree was nearly full. The Doctor carefully placed a silver bird on a higher branch, eyeing the position critically to make sure it looked like the bird was actually perched on the tree.

When he was satisfied, he turned around to get Rose’s opinion. She was standing next to the box, a silvered ball in her hands.

The Doctor walked over and peered down at the ornament. “1985,” he said, reading the date etched in the glittered surface. That date tickled at his memory, but he couldn’t remember the significance.

Rose touched it with a delicate finger. “That’s their ‘Our First Christmas’ ornament. Mum hung it up every year, and she’d tell me all about how they met and how he swept her off her feet with just his… energy and zest for life.”

She took it to the tree and carefully hung it in a prominent position. “I wonder if they’ll get a new one, now.”

Her voice wobbled a little, and the Doctor put his arm around her shoulders. Rose turned into his embrace and he held her tight.

He stared over her head at the tree they’d just decorated, a tree that told the story of her family. She was the only one left in this universe who knew those stories, who remembered all those people.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured.

Rose tilted her head and looked up at him. “For what?”

He sighed and took a step back. “For this. For… for taking your family from you. For leaving you with nothing but memories.” He winced. “I know what that feels like.”

To his surprise, Rose didn’t break down in tears or admit that she blamed him for the permanent separation from her mum. Instead, she shook her head and went back to the ornament box.

“I bought this when we were on Kuri the other day,” she told him.

The Doctor took the box and opened it, wondering what on earth she could have found at the alien market that would fit in with the current conversation.

A wooden ornament rested on a bed of tissue paper, and he stared down at it, his throat working.

“How?” he whispered, picking up the carved TARDIS.

“There was this stand that claimed they could do carvings in under two hours. I gave them a picture of the TARDIS and told them what I wanted it to say.”

Because, painted in white over the bright blue box was a single word: _Run_.

“I didn’t lose my family at Canary Wharf. _You_ are my family.”

The music suddenly swelled and they both laughed when they recognised the opening strains of “Home for the Holidays.”

“That’s it,” Rose agreed. “I’m right where I’d want to be for Christmas, because home is where you are.”

The Doctor put the ornament on the tree, then turned and swept Rose into a dance. “Have I told you today that I love you?”

She slid her hand up over his shoulder and played with the hair at the nape of his neck. “Maybe, but you better say it again just to be sure.”

He laughed again and spun them around until they were standing right in front of the fireplace. “Rose Tyler, I love you.”

Her smile was open and loving. The grief he’d been afraid of seeing was still there, but it wasn’t the most prominent emotion. “I love you too, Doctor.”

The TARDIS hummed and they both looked up at the ceiling, where a sprig of mistletoe now hung. Rose shook her head and stepped closer to the Doctor. “Well, if she’s going to provide the opportunity…”

The Doctor tugged her close and bent down. “Never one to miss an opportunity, me,” he whispered as he pressed his lips to hers.


End file.
